Replies

Laura Lee, I understand that you probably need some kind of emotional validation. However, spoonfeeding people answers isn't going to make you meaningful. It might make you FEEL meaningful (you're so awesome because you can write basic C programs, did you sense the sarcasm?), but all it will do is teach people that you will do their work for them; YOU ARE A PAWN TO THESE PEOPLE!

If you want to validate yourself by teaching them, then TEACH them with words instead of just giving them the answer. Find out what their actual problem is, and help them to correct their confusion or build their understanding so they can solve the problem and feel as though they've learnt how to do it themselves.

Linguistic Llama, I don't need any emotional validation. Your sarcasm isn't funny either. I've been programming in C on Windows for over 12 years. I've worked with embedded devices as well as developed drivers for the Windows Kernel. Yes, I'm so awesome because I can write basic c applications. Did you get the sarcasm in that? Yes I'm also awesome because I'm far more qualified of a programmer than you could ever hope to be. Did you get the sarcasm in that? There wasn't any. If you'd like to challenge or question my ability, go for it. But don't make assumptions about me when you have no idea. Likewise, I am free to post whatever I please.

Laura, you're new to these forums, so I can forgive you for doubting my ability to program in C. Had you seen my profile on the old forum software, you would have realised I was a moderator because I was deemed to be extremely helpful, particularly in the C section of the forum. I proved myself years ago, for years before becoming a moderator.

There are people who can vouch for this. All you need to do is ask around; it's called research. This is something you should be expecting your students to do before asking you questions. Please set a good example. It's embarrassing that someone with your credentials can come up with such wrong information.

My concern is not your ability to program in C. You have demonstrated that you can program in C, however you have not demonstrated that you can teach other people to program in C. Teaching other people doesn't involve spewing code that they don't understand at them. That's just doing their work for them.

... and I'm sorry if you read my first post as though it's insulting. I do rub off a bit abrasively on some people. My intent was to convince you to stop spoonfeeding by appealing to your emotions, because even though there may be one in one hundred people who will actually read your code and understand what corrections needed to be made, THE OTHER NINETY-NINE will simply copy and paste and take credit for your effort. Those ninety-nine will then keep coming back, time and time again, expecting you to write code for them, even when they've graduated and the work they're expecting you to do is earning them money. Do you think you'll see any of that money?

Are you here to help people? Why get emotionally involved? You should look past the garbage that is people talking trash about you and look to the gold that is the people you try to help.

Is doing someones homework for them really helping? You're helping them pass, sure, but unless you're willing to spoon-feed them time and time again well into when they get a career, you're kind of just convincing them to waste their tertiary funds.

What you need to do is determine what they're confused about and work on correcting that, then verify that they have actually learnt something. Have you ever heard of the Socratic method? Socrates was hated by many people because he made them feel stupid, but he also made them realise how many wrong beliefs they held.

I do not need to demonstrate I can teach people. In fact I have been teaching for a long time. I do not teach C, by teaching C. I start by teaching them about the architecture, this assembler, registers, the stack, push and pop and call instructions. Then the compiler process and finally I let them figure out how the C code can be generated to machine level instructions and let them predict how the compiler will generate such code.

Do you really care so much about portability? Especially in a language like C? When will you ever write a fully functioning, practical application that does not rely on OS functionality, in a language like C? Never. Architecture dependant code is efficient code.